Pakistan: ANP opposes peace zone for TTP

ANP leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Tuesday opposed the Tehreek-i-Taliban’s call for the creation of a peace zone for dialogue with the government and said his party would never allow anyone to play with the solidarity of the Pakhtun soil. Addressing a news conference at the press club here, Mian Iftikhar asked the government to show courage and effectively deal with terrorism. He said ANP had always advocated dialogue for peace but would never accept the TTP demands hurting the country’s interests. The ANP leader said the government should speak to the TTP only after the latter accepted its writ. He said ANP would support the federal and provincial governments for their peace initiatives but wanted them to effectively respond to the terrorists’ activities at the same time. Mian Iftikhar accused the TTP of having double standard saying on hand one, the outfit wanted dialogue but on the other, it continued to kill innocent people. “Earlier, they (TTP) openly claimed responsibility for terrorist activities but now, they don’t do so. We now face the hidden enemy,” he said. The ANP leader said his party had formed an alliance with two major parties for the coming local body elections and would emerge as successful. He said the alliance fully supported the PTI government over the local body elections but feared the latter won’t be able to ensure introduction of biometric voter verification system for the polls. “They (PTI government) don’t have the capacity to put the system in place,” he said. Mian Iftikhar said the PTI government had yet to begin a new development scheme in the province. “All the current development schemes on which work is underway were initiated by our government,” he said, adding that the current government had handed over its affairs to consultants despite having full-fledged departments.